Virtual Tour Page

Pardon us as we build this site, for any shortcomings.
For example, many detail files are incomplete, but included to show
the breadth of subject matter we intend to cover. And we will have lots
more illustrations of our machines and artefacts.
We hope you will visit us again soon !

TOUR THE MUSEUM by browsing this overview, or click one of the
following to navigate by other means:

Artefacts relating to tasks such as hand tools, storage racks
and cabinets, and the myriad materials and items used in printing
which are not machines and not founts.

Our Libraries. These cover books and papers as artefacts, books about
print and related areas and items printed in our Access Studio.

Ancilliary Collections

These are collections which are not directly related to the printing
industry but to the working environment in general and the office
environment in particular.
They include:

Office Equipment

Computers

Telecommunications

NOTES

A fount [pron font] of type is made up of about 90
different characters (for English: more in many other languages),
and has a number of pieces of type of each character. Text sizes
(such as 8 point) may have a total of 4000 pieces in a fount. Large
display sizes (such as 48 point) may have as few as 200 pieces.

Founts of type are stored in typecases. Typecases are stored in type
cabinets. We have a collection with thousands of founts, hundreds of
cabinets and every kind of accessory and tool used in traditional
printing.

Printing presses are, in the main, either letterpress or offset-
litho. In letterpress there are platen presses and cylinder presses.
They may be motorised or person-powered. They may be hand-fed or
automatically fed. They may be large machines or little desktop
devices. We have them all, dating from about 1850 to the 1980's.

Typesetting for letterpress may be by hand (hand-set type founts) or
by machine. Working machines in our collection include all common
processes: Linotype, Intertype, Ludlow Typograph, Nebitype and
Monotype. And we don't just have one of each: there are about eighty
machines in total. And thousands of founts of matrices for them.

Making hand-set type is the function of a typecasting machine or a
manual type mould, together with sets of matrices. Our typefoundry
has a Trader Horn manual type mould, several Monotype Supercasters
and several Monotype composition casters and a wide range of
matrices.

Our collection also includes many business records and examples of
printing together with artwork, proofs, layouts, negatives, printing
plates, engraved blocks, cutting formes and `rescued' pages and jobs
made up in type.

Our library has a large collection of Books as Artefacts. These
are chosen not for their content but their style and circumstances
of printing and publishing. Also our collection of prints and posters
many of which were printed at the Museum by visitors under our
Access Studio program.

Our Machinery Collection

Our collection of machines features both old technology and new.
After all, what is new today will be old tomorrow. We include quite
a few examples of `new' technology, already outdated after just a
few years.

Technical notes are included with this Department. Historical notes
about the use of any particular machine or process would be found in
our Printing Industry Department.[BUT DON'T EXPECT TOO MUCH JUST YET, IN THAT AREA.]

Many machines use sets [or founts] of matrices. These founts are
in our Founts Division (see below), but the description of the mats
and how they work is in this Department.

Sundry items. Examples are machines for sawing and mitring
printing types and strip material, machines to make cross-points for
rule-formes, to put security patterns onto typefaces, clean and
adjust mats.

Our Founts Collection

A fount [Spelt as 'font' in US English, and pronounced
'font' in any dialect] is an old typefounder's term for the
quantity of type made in one founding. [OED]

In the printing sense, the fount of type was meant to be an
inexhaustible supply of letters (of the one face and size), from
which a book was composed. Each fount is stored in a type case,
a kind of tray with about 90 compartments, or perhaps a pair of cases
to achieve larger compartments.

As the compositor used up the letters, they would be topped up. Work
would stop if the `case' ran out of any letter.

The collection includes many founts of type, new and used, with the
majority ranging up to 60 years old. Some are older, with many
from foundries long since closed. Most are stored in cases, and some
`tied up' on galleys.

For the typefoundry, there are many founts of matrices for making
hand-set type. It is relevant to note that unlike a fount of type,
a fount of typecasting mats has only one of each character. So it
is not a fount in the truest sense. But it was obviously
convenient to use the same term.

For the linecasters (Linotype, Ludlow, etc.) the matrix founts are
stored and used in magazines or matrix cases, and there are plenty
of them.

Founts of matrices are listed here, but their technical notes
will be found along with the machine that uses them.

Handset Type Section

Monotype Founts
Produced either by printers with their own Monotype plant or
by typefounders using Monotype, as the majority were in this century.

Foundry Types
Produced by typefounders using pre-Monotype equipment. These
fouunts tend to be of harder metal and deeper engraving, quality not
obtainable with the Monotype system. Many typefounders had their own
typefaces, made their own matrices and possibly their own
typecasting machinery, and this is reflected in the founts.

Special Purpose Types
Includes types of brass and other metals for hot stamping
and types on odd-shaped body, as for certain overprinting machines.

Poster Types
Larger types, from about 72 points [one inch] up to several
inches, and usually of wood.

Typesetting Matrix Section

Monotype Composition
MatsUsually from 6pt to 14pt with a few of 5, 18 and 24
point size. Each fount has one matrix of each character.

Linotype and Intertype
MatsFrom 4-3/4 point to 36 point, but the majority from 6
point to 14 point. Mats are stored in magazines. Each fount
has a quantity of mats of each character (up to 21 is possible).

Ludlow and Nebitype
FountsFrom 6 point to 96 point, with a different kind for
120 and 144 point. Mats are stored in matrix cases (similar to type
cases. Each fount has a quantity of mats of each character (there is
no particular limit, but up to 10 is common).

Melbourne Museum of Printing

Educational Programs:

Classes in traditions of typography - ideal for
modern typophiles and students of design, media, DTP amd WP.

Public Programs:

We are planning for a working printshop with both old and new
systems on view, as well as displays of typecasting, stereotyping,
newpaper and book production, and other forms of printing.
[Not yet available as at late 1996]

Newspaper Composing Room Project:

There is a long-term plan to use our many typesetting machines
to recreate that magical place which used to lurk within each
newspaper office.

Our full-size newspaper composing room will have at least 50
linecasters and will be operable to produce full-size pages.

Access Programs:

Use our types and presses to print your own unique artworks
or books. Ideal for printmakers to explore `real printing'.

BOOK LOVERS' AND HISTORIANS' SPECIAL:

See how it was done: hand compose and print a reproduction
book page for your collection !

Research Program:

Academics and others interested in history of printing,
history of design, history of business, are welcome.

One of our aims: to preserve not only the hardware of printing
but the skill-base required to use it.

Melbourne Museum of Printing

One of our aims: . . . to ensure the ongoing availability
of supplies for those who wish to print by letterpress.

Read about AUSTRALIAN TYPE COMPANY, which offers a wide range of
letterpress typefaces and other supplies.

HAND-SET TYPE, BORDERS, SPACING

HOT-METAL TYPESETTING BY MAIL

PRINTING PRESSES - HAND OR AUTOMATIC

All proceeds go to the Museum.

Our MUSEUM SHOP carries a range of visitor packs with
interesting assortments of real letterpress types priced
from $5 to $50 (Australian Dollars). Mail order is possible.
Just give us a call for details.
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